


The King of Hearts

by Fake_Gameboy



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Comfort, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Romance, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-17 08:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17556920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fake_Gameboy/pseuds/Fake_Gameboy
Summary: After seeing Jack escape out a two story window to avoid seeing Carly, Crow presses Jack on why he's been avoiding her lately. A what-if scenario where Jack acknowledges Carly's confession after the Dark Signer arc.





	1. Help From a Friend

Jack walked down the stairs into the garage, hungry for a pack of cup noodle. He began to pick at the plastic covering, and glanced over at Crow. Crow laid on his back, giving his duel runner a tune up. As Jack turned on the water heater, Crow stopped what he was doing and sat up.

“So, are we just not going to talk about what happened yesterday?”

“What happened yesterday?” Crow raised an eyebrow at Jack.

“You know full well what happened yesterday, what’s got you so bent out of shape that you’d jump out a two story window to avoid seeing someone? Seems kind of cowardly if you ask me.”

“Jack Atlas is not a coward!” Jack’s over the top gesture in reaction to Crow nearly knocked over the water heater.

“Right, so let’s recap. Yesterday afternoon Carly came by to see if you were around. You were so I went up to your room to grab you. Soon as I get up there I see your bedroom window wide open and you’re already making a turn down an alleyway. What gives? It was just Carly stopping by to say hi.”

“Things between Carly and I are… A bit odd, right now.” Jack turned to his cup noodles to hide his embarrassment from Crow.

“Oh boy, is the Jack Atlas a little flustered? Over a girl no less! Who would’ve thought the master of faster, who has hundreds of fan girls, is scared to talk to Carly of all people!” Jack walked over and grabbed Crow’s collar, picking him up off the floor.

“Keep talking the way you’re talking Crow and we’re scrapping.”

“Okay okay! Take it easy.” Jack placed Crow back on his feet, and released his grip. Crow leaned back on the seat of his duel runner. “Do you want to talk about it? Or is this one of those Jack things that you’re going to try and fix on your own?” Jack took a deep breath, and exhaled.

“Well, do you remember how Carly became a dark signer?”

“Yeah, so? She’s back to normal, as normal as Carly gets anyway.”

“Of course she’s back to normal, but she also lost all her memories of when she was dark signer.”

“What’s the big deal about that? If I became a dark signer I’d probably never want to remember any part of it.”

“The big deal is… The big deal is when she returned to normal after our duel, she told me something. She told me something she probably wouldn’t have told me otherwise. She… She told me that she loved me.” Jack was glad he could attribute his burning face to the cup noodle he started to slurp down after saying that.

“What!? Oh man, so when she came back, she didn’t remember saying that, huh? Yeah, I can see why it might be weird to hang out with her now, since you know how she feels but she doesn’t know that you know, ya know?”

“Yeah, I think. I’m not sure what to do Crow.”

“Hmmm, well, how do you feel about Carly, Jack?” Jack coughed on the noodles he was slurping, but quickly wiped his mouth and regained his composure.

“She was the only one who was really there for me after I lost to Yusei. At first, I only saw her as an annoyance. But, she kept believing in me, even after it felt like everyone deserted me. She helped me turn around and become a better person.”

“Sounds like you care about her a lot, Jack.” Jack drank up the last of the noodle broth, and placed the cup down on the table. “I suppose I do.”

“Do you think… Do you think you feel the same way she does about you?”

“… I might.”

“Wow, and here I was thinkin’ that you could only be in love with yourself!” As soon as those words came out of his mouth, Crow felt himself lift off the ground once again. “You little worm! Here I am opening up to you and you go and make jokes?!”

“Alright alright relax! Only kidding.” Crow felt his feet touch the ground. “Here’s my advice Jack: First off, stop avoiding Carly. You’ll probably end up hurting her if you keep avoiding her like this.” Jack looked away from Crow, feeling guilty upon hearing that. “Second, just go talk her man! What’s the worst that can happen? It’s not like you hate being around her. If you’re not sure how you feel, just hang out and see where things go.”

“For once Crow, I think I agree with you.”

“That’s the spirit Jack! Now, it is…” Crow walked over to the computer to check the time. “About five PM. Wow, what a coincidence! I think Carly gets off work around this time! Since you don’t have a job or any responsibilities, you should head over to her place for a visit!”

“What? No. No, I am not doing that.” Jack folded his arms in protest.

“Oh yes you are.” Crow started to push Jack towards and up the stairs out of the garage. “What are you doing!? I can’t see Carly now!” Jack put his arm on the wall to help keep himself in place.

“No time like the present Jack you better get to the bottom of this ASAP, unless you don’t actually care about Carly?” Crow smirked, he knew exactly how to press Jack’s buttons.

“How dare you insinuate I don’t care about Carly! I’ll be back to tear you a new one later.” Jack marched up the stairs in a huff.

“Make sure to tell me all the dirty details when you get back!” Jack slammed the door behind him.

“Oh man, I can’t wait to tell Yusei all about this one.” Crow laughed to himself, and slipped back under his duel runner.


	2. Confession of a Confession

“No kidding?” Yusei turned around from his computer desk to face Crow.

“Yeah, really! We just had this whole big thing about it, and it ended with me practically shoving Jack out the door to go see her” Crow reached into the mini fridge for something to drink

“Heh, you know, Carly is probably the last person I’d imagine to be Jack’s type.”

“Love is blind as they say.” Crow took a sip from the can of soda he grabbed out of the fridge.

Meanwhile, Jack approached the front of Carly’s apartment building. He scanned the directory and spotted Carly’s name, apartment number 5B. He took a deep breath and exhaled before ringing the buzzer.

“Yes? Hello?” Carly’s voice crackled over the intercom.

“Hey Carly, it’s me.” Jack didn’t bother to introduce himself, he figured Carly would know who it is by the sound of his voice.

Carly’s heart skipped a beat as she took her finger off the button. “Jack? Here? At my apartment complex!? Oh my gosh, why is he here? What’s his motive?” Carly tapped her foot on the ground in an attempt to calm herself. “I mean, it’s not like I mind him being here or anything…” Carly jumped at the realization that Jack was still on the line.

“Carly, it’s me, Jack, are you still there?” Carly rushed back over to the intercom, fearing Jack may soon lose interest.

“YES, I mean, yes, I’m still here. What brings you here Jack? I don’t think you’ve ever gone out of your way to come see me before.”

Jack scratched his face before answering. “I heard from Crow that you were looking for me the other day so I figured I’d stop by and see what you wanted.”

“O-oh! To be honest, I just wanted to check in on you really.”

“Well, I’m doing fine.” In that moment, Jack felt like leaving it at that and walking away. Besides the fact that he’d catch and earful from Crow, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Carly hanging. “Would you like to come down? We can catch up. We haven’t spoken much since everything returned to normal.”

Carly almost couldn’t believe it. It was too good to be true. When they first met, she’d have to twist his arm just to spend some time with him. Now here he is, wanting to ‘catch up?’ “Sure! I’ll be down in a sec!” Carly flew down the stairs, not wanting to miss this opportunity.

The front door of the apartment building flung open and before Jack could process it, Carly wrapped her arms around him for a hug. “Hi Jack!”

“Er, hi Carly.” She released him and took a step back. “So um, what’s up? Now that you’re here I’m not really sure what to do.” Not sure what else to say, Carly cleaned her glasses with the hem of her shirt to keep herself occupied.

Carly wasn’t the only one without a clue how to proceed, Jack wracked his brain for options, he was never someone who planned anything. “Well, I suppose we could head over to the park and see where things go.”

“That sounds great! Let’s go.” The two of them began to walk.

Jack looked up at the sky. He figured now was as good a time as any to start ‘that’ conversation. “Carly, I know you were the one who wanted to ‘check in’ on me, but I should have been checking in on you. How have you been lately?”

“Oh you know, work and stuff. I’ve been fine, why do you ask?”

“You’ve been through a lot lately Carly, we all have.”

“Ah you mean all that dark signer business.” Carly looked up at Jack and smiled. “Honestly, I don’t remember a thing! I figured it was best not to ask. I mean, who would want to remember something like that?”

“So you’re not in the least bit curious then?” Jack could barely hide the incredulous look he had on his face, Carly laughed.

“Well, if you put it that way, you might as well tell me, why don’t we stop and sit at that bench over there?” Carly and Jack sat next to each other, as Jack prepared himself to tell Carly what had happened.

“As you know, you were one of the dark signers. In order for us to gain access Ener-D reactor, I had to duel you.”

“You and I dueled!? Oh my gosh, did I do good? Did I give you a run for your money?” Jack smirked.

“More than a run Carly, you pushed me to my absolute limit, you weren’t too bad on a duel runner either.”

“I rode a duel runner!? Wow, maybe I have talent, I should get a license!”

“Hmph, perhaps.”

“So what happened? Obviously you ended up winning, but how did you do it?” Jack grew quiet, trying to gather his thoughts on what to say next.

“You see Carly, I didn’t know that once we won, everything that Goodwin and the dark signers had done, all the lives that they took, it would all be undone. At that time, all I knew was that if I won… If I won, I would lose you.” Jack quickly wiped his eye, he didn’t think he would get like this, and the last thing he would let himself do is cry in front of Carly.

“So… What was your plan?” Carly sensed Jack’s change in tone, but felt it was best to let him continue.

“My plan was to end the duel in a draw, I couldn’t bring myself to defeat you. But, you did something. You did something reckless, something stupid, something brave. You overcame the earthbound immortal controlling you, and activated a trap card that drained the last of your life points.”

Carly continued to listen. She felt a bit of pride in her actions, but wanted to comfort Jack more than anything. She had never seen him this vulnerable before.

“And? What happened next?”

“Then you… You faded away… I was mortified and I couldn’t save you and…” Carly embraced Jack as he broke down in tears.

“Jack, it’s okay, I’m okay. I’m here, everything is fine.” Carly began to cry herself. The two of them took a moment to hold each other and collect themselves.

“… Sorry about that. Crying isn’t really something I do.”

“It’s alright Jack, you went through a lot. It’s not healthy to let it all bottle up like that.”

“Thanks, Carly.” Carly felt a bit of awkward tension now that they had a good cry, and tried to think of something that could break the silence.

“Are there any more details you want to share about Carly the brave?” Jack leaned back into the bench, there was only one part of the story that remained untold.

“There is... there is one last thing I need to tell you.”

“Oh?”

“Before you faded away, you told me something.” The gears in Carly’s mind began to turn. If she were about to fade away, there is only one thing she would tell Jack before she was gone. A pit of despair began to form in Carly’s stomach.

“You told me…” Jack paused thinking of how he should phrase this next part, but quickly decided he shouldn’t sugarcoat things and be as honest as possible. “You told me that you loved me.”

To say that Carly was embarrassed was an understatement. “O-oh, haha, yeah. I guess I can’t really hide it any more, not that I wasn’t very secretive about my feelings or anything.” Carly stood up and turned to face Jack. “I’m gonna head back now, thanks for telling me everything.” Carly turned and started to walk away, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Hold on, why leave now?” Carly gently removed Jack’s hand from her shoulder.

“Because, you’re Jack Atlas! Why would you want anything to do with me? You could be with practically anyone you want to be with. Look, I already made things weird between us by telling you how I feel, maybe it was best that I forgot everything. That way I could at least still be your friend.”

Jack hit his breaking point and snapped. “Don’t be ridiculous Carly! Of course we could still be friends, we could even be more than friends.”

“What?” Carly spun around, not believing what Jack had implied.

“You heard me! What If I returned your feelings Carly? What if I love you back?”

“Well, I, I don’t know, I um… We’d be a couple?” Carly sheepishly played with her hair.

“Yes, we would.” Jack pulled Carly into his arms. “Carly, without you I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I love you Carly.” Jack lowered himself slightly and kissed Carly.

Carly pulled away first, nuzzling her head in Jack’s chest. “Mind walking me home? It’s getting kind of late and I gotta get ready for work tomorrow.”

“Sure, Carly.” Carly moved to Jack’s side, holding his hand as they walked back. “I love you too, Jack.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Came out longer than I expected, but got the motivation to finish this chapter. Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Was pretty let down that things kind of fizzled out for Jack and Carly after the Dark Signer arc, so I decided to write my own take on it. Thanks for reading!


End file.
